Doing business in this economy

[photoshowstudio Profile Private messageWebsite]

With the lack of disposable income, do some of you find it harder to drum up more business? The "Do-It-Yourselfers" out there will think they can create it just fine on their own and not pay someone else to do it. Kind of like the person who normally calls a plumber, now may look up directions on how to fix a leak.

I started my business over a year ago and did prenty of jobs for myself, friends, and church, but have yet to drum up business and I know my products are good. I paid for a website, but money really IS that tight that paying to maintain it adds up. I want like everything to be able to make money at this, but lose motivation when nothing happens and all I see is money disappearing from my wallet into trying to make it work.

I'm not saying I want to stop, because I don't. I love making shows and shooting pictures with a future show in mind. It's just a little frustrating and I wanted to see if anyone else here was feeling this too.

[webandgraphicsguy Profile Private message]

TIMES ARE TOUGH.....
Try offering a service to make visual resumes for people. You can set proshow up so it goes to there personal blog when the video has played out. Try to optimize you file size so they can email the video. I did this, and i got a few jobs out of it.
Be willing to think outside of the box with your skills, lower your prices if thats what it takes
Take care
Joe

[debngar Profile Private message]

I totally agree about thinking out of the box.

Lowering prices, well, if lowered too much that there's no profit and decent ROI, then one has to do something else to make up the difference to pay bills and the cost of doing business, meaning finding MORE business to take up the slack or raise prices to stay in business. The more you give it away, the less people respect the value on your services. That doesn't mean to say one shouldn't do charity services. Put your value on it and tell them they're getting a 100% discount, stating the price they would have paid if you actually required payment for your services.

[marmart Profile Private message]

I still think there is a great market in school and graduation videos.

I have gotten into elementary to middle school videos - don't ask me why, but all the schools here do one. Anyway, they have become huge for me. One school this year alone is worth $1000 for me. Yes, there is a lot of work, but it is fun and the word spreads. You can really push the creative envelope.

I also do sports videos for schools. The nice thing about doing these kinds of shows is one person doesn't have to foot the bill. I charge $20/person and obviously some classes are larger than others, but overall it has paid off.

The only problem with this kind of video is they are all due at the same time, so I limit myself to so many and require that I have all photos etc. by Feb 1st so the bulk of the video is done for the last minute, year end photos.

Mary

[Ron Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi
I want to state up front that these comments are my general business thoughts. Each person needs to evaluate their own situation.
Starting a business of any kind takes a lot of knowledge and hard work. Being able to create very nice shows doesn't give one the ability to be successful in the slide show business. Have you spoke to someone who is running a successful business? Pick his/her brains. You'll be surprised how helpful they will be.
With that said, Do you have a well thought out business plan? That is key: what to do, how to do, when to do, marketing / advertising plan - your guidelines for running your business.

You mentioned that maintaining a website is costly. A website doesn't generate many sales IMHO. It is more of a convenience for your customers generated in other ways and for receiving payment. So keeping that expense as low as possible seems to make sense. How one attracts customers in this business to me is simple, word of mouth! Like needing a
photographer one wouldn't look on the web but would asks friends & family whom they used & liked. It takes time to establish a "name" in this type of business, a year really isn't a long time.

Also mentioned is that your losing motivation. Money can't be a huge motivator. You truly must love your art and enjoy it through the good & bad times. I'm sure the economy is affecting many people, maybe their business plan needs to be reevaluated at this time. There are so many factors involved in running a business, which is a big difference from those who make money from their hobby like myself.
Well those are my thoughts for whatever their worth.
Ron

[czali Profile Private message]

I have really been feeling it lately. I have been thinking about offering an economy package but less customized then my normal work. I had someone actually decide to go up to walgreens and have a slideshow put together. I think the problem is that people do not understand the difference with a truely customized show. I have one large job coming up but really do not know what else to do????

Colleen

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

I think like everyone else here.
And times are just hard all over.

But the possibilities are endless in the slideshow business. I would think anyway. It is like anything else, you have to work at getting your name out there. Try Funeral Homes, schools, dance studios, every photographer in town, little kids sports, Baby stores, etc.

At my grandson's baseball game, a lady was going around and taking pics of the kids while playing ball. She was selling the shots for $5 ea. She came around the next week with everyone's printed out 5x7. She was doing pretty good. I even bought one. You could do a show at the end of the season, and see who would buy one.
Not sure what you would charge. It would have to be reasonable.

I would put an ad in my community newspaper.
And offer scanning for all the photos people would just love to get on a digital format.

Just my 2 cents.

[debngar Profile Private message]

-snip-
At my grandson's baseball game, a lady was going around and taking pics of the kids while playing ball. She was selling the shots for $5 ea. She came around the next week with everyone's printed out 5x7. She was doing pretty good. I even bought one. You could do a show at the end of the season, and see who would buy one.
Not sure what you would charge. -snip-

This also involves getting model releases for the child's images signed by every parent or guardian at the time the pictures are being taken. Parents are often concerned about their child's images being displayed without their permission these days due to online predators, etc. Having just one parent not agreeing to having their child's likeness in the show could ruin it for everyone. You may not run into trouble if the show is only shown and sold to the families of the children. But put it online and that can be a problem without those signed model releases in your hand.

[zookeeper]

This is not exactly relating to economy, but for those of you in business, what are your thoughts about the new slide styles. I see that Photodex has released Vol. I of slide styles for purchase. They seem to be making it very easy for one to get special effects in their slideshows. (BTW, with these slide styles, they've caught up to the "Memories on TV" program's clip shows) I'm just getting started with the business, but am finding it a little discouraging to see these; and many of them are available for the gold version. I had my own version of pictures on a corkboard I developed because it went with the theme of a show I did. This type of thing is what I use as selling points for a show and the price I charge for having special effects. I know that the people that are going to hire me probably do not have the computer knowledge or interest in doing their own, but others that might see these shows may be saying, Oh I can do something like that easy enough. So then my work is not so special anymore or worthy of extra money... Is it just me feeling this way? I will just have to wait and see how it goes and then rethink. At this moment I have enough to do.

[MICHAELAUKNZ Profile Private message]

Hi

The Styles are the business opportunity ..

I now think the time has truly come with some of the more recent developments Photodex is releasing to be the community trainer for many would be photographers and show producer alike as the tools are skilling down the skill level required very quickly and many more people would like to use the program to self create their own shows than pay for one...

[skiyak]

This is not exactly relating to economy, but for those of you in business, what are your thoughts about the new slide styles. I see that Photodex has released Vol. I of slide styles for purchase. They seem to be making it very easy for one to get special effects in their slideshows. I'm just getting started with the business, but am finding it a little discouraging to see these; and many of them are available for the gold version. I had my own version of pictures on a corkboard I developed because it went with the theme of a show I did. This type of thing is what I use as selling points for a show and the price I charge for having special effects. I know that the people that are going to hire me probably do not have the computer knowledge or interest in doing their own, but others that might see these shows may be saying, Oh I can do something like that easy enough. So then my work is not so special anymore or worthy of extra money...

With the Digital/Computer World everything changes so fast and you always have to stay one step ahead of the game. The new styles just released are all right but there's nothing really to them. After awhile, they will get overused. I remember a couple of years ago, everyone seemed to open their slideshows with a curtain opening. If times are slow, this is a good time to really learn the program, make new styles and your own designs. It's not good enough to just try and copy what you've seen Photodex has done in one of their new styles because that will be old and tired in no time.

It is also a time to make your styles or designs as flexible as possible so later when your jobs start flowing again, you will have new material to work with and then hopefully, you will be able to mix some of your new designs with old and with your newfound proficiency in Producer, you should be able to create your end result much faster.

It's also a good time to learn about design (you can find lots of articles on the web so no cost). Learn about typography, about image processing, learn how to use your photo editor as that opens a lot more doors on what you can do with Producer, learn about Photography even if you're not taking the pictures, you can learn about the fundamentals so you can develop an eye on what makes a shot look good and then transfer that knowledge to how you view your slides.

[HunnyB Profile Private message]

I agree about the overuse of the "curtain" --- but I did get it and use it in various shows, when appropriate.
I guess we have to remember that the one the show is for - may have never seen the curtian.
But when we view all the shows on here - seems like the curtain is everywhere. Know what I mean?
Have you noticed that the blur and reflection is the latest trend. I have. Even on TV commercials.

I happen to be excited about the slide styles from Photodex. I am going to purchase it. TODAY I think.

[zookeeper]

Hi Skiyak - Definately, everything changes all the time. Trends come and go, as you see on tv. They are using a lot of motion elements in ads, news, etc. Almost overdone, IMO. Yes, I will keep working on my own and I do like how easy it is to save and reuse them. And I will probably use of a few of Photodex's. There are a couple from the ones that came with vers. 4 that I have used. I have shows that I am doing right now, so I don't have that time that you are talking about. I will just keep working away, trying to keep my creativity going and keeping my final product unique and customized for the customer.

Hunny - That's probably true, not everyone sees that many home shows and as long as the people you are making the show for is happy - that's what matters. The slide styles do make it very easy and as mentioned above, I will probably use some of them as well. Hopefully, I will stay busy and people will be happy with their shows.

[zookeeper]

Michaelaunkz - This has crossed my mind a time or two. This is definately something I am considering and a couple of other areas as well. I do enjoy producing the complete shows, however.